1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to a system for installing and deinstalling an application program, and in particular to installing and deinstalling an application program using drag and drop operations.
2. Description of Related Art
Installation of application programs on Microsoft Windows.TM. Platforms (e.g., Windows.TM. 3.X, Windows 95.TM., and Windows NT.TM.) typically involves running a single executable file, usually called SETUP.EXE. The SETUP.EXE program is a standard installation program that comes with an application program. It is created with various tools including those found in Development Kits sold by Microsoft Corporation.
The SETUP.EXE program creates directories, copies files, and modifies configuration files (e.g., AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, and WIN.INI files). The SETUP.EXE program also determines many hardware configuration parameters (e.g., number of drives, drive sizes, free space on drives, and processor type) and software parameters (e.g., Windows.TM. version, Windows.TM. path, and number of buffers). The SETUP.EXE program typically determines these parameters by requesting information from the user through the use of dialog boxes containing various controls. It can be very time consuming for the user to have to input all of this information each time an application program is installed.
Moreover, to prepare an application for installation, application programs sometimes are imported. The process for importing application programs includes several steps. Typically, it is a very complicated process, and so it is time consuming for a user (e.g., a network administrator) to perform all of the steps.
After a user has completed work using an installed application program, the user may want to deinstall the application program. Typically, deinstallation removes the application program but must be careful not to remove any user data that was created by the application program or in the application program's file directories. Unfortunately there is no guarantee that a SETUP.EXE program provides for deinstallation of the application program (i.e., what Microsoft calls uninstallation).
Therefore, there is a need for an improved method of installing and deinstalling Windows.TM. application programs.